Sickness
by Drindrak
Summary: Aoi Hana gets sick. The Director worries. The Animals are humoured. One-Shot. Implied ShiinAoi if ya' squint. Pre-Circus Arc.


**A/N: Just a short one-shot about one of my favourite Manga. Hope you enjoyed.**

**A bit of OOC-ness ahead. Not a lot, but still.**

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><p>It was hot. Hot, hot, hot. At least, to Aoi it was. <em>'Aa~h why is it so hot?'<em> And oh, how it hurt to move. Her joints ached and her throat was extremely sore, and that sheen of sweat that she was too tired to wipe away made her knotted hair plaster itself to her face. Aoi groaned and rolled onto her side, kicking her blanket off as she went. A relieved sigh left her as the cool morning air embraced her. She slowly felt herself drift off back into blissful unconsciousness...

"AOOOOI!" Of course the Director couldn't keep his voice down. Aoi rolled back onto her back, and cracked open an eye to watch the door. _'3... 2... 1...'_ She counted down, waiting for the Director to burst through the door. Her door was literally kicked off of it's hinges as he entered, carrot in his hand, his long ears twitching at her laboured breath. "...Aoi? What're you doing still laying in bed? You have work!" He scolded, flicking the carrot in his hand at her. It smacked into her forehead and bounced to the floor, eliciting another groan from her.

"Director... could you... not?" She grumbled, covering the growing bruise on her head. The Director blinked, before stalking towards her.

"What's wrong with you? Get up!" He gave her a light kick, which meant yet another bruise on her body. He tilted his head and frowned. "Why's your face all red? And sweaty? And why aren't you dressed for work!" Aoi just gave him a hum for an answer and rolled away from him. "Oi!" The Director tched, before turning around. "It must be one of those things only girls can talk about right? I'll get Uwabami then." The Director muttered to himself as he walked back outside. Aoi just hummed again and let her eyes close.

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><p>"Zookeeper?" Someone was shaking her. "Hey, Zookeeper, wakey wakey." Aoi blinked open her eyes after what felt like five minutes of rest. "Zookeeper? Aoi?" She looked up and spotted Uwabami, or more specifically, one of the snakes she was, as it was right in her face.<p>

"Uwabami?" Aoi asked, her voice raspy from a sore throat. Uwabami winced a bit and nodded.

"Yes, it's me. Are you alright?" Aoi gave her a dirty look.

"No. Does it look like I'm okay?" Uwabami shrugged.

"Not really. But us Animals don't get human sicknesses, even if we're human for most of the night." Aoi sighed and nodded at her.

"I'm sick. Tell the Director that I'll be fine if he just leaves me alone for a few days. It's just a cold."

"A few days? That's quite a while. Are you sure you'll be fine?"

"Just go! I'll be _fine!_" Aoi made a shooing motion with her hand, and pulled her blanket over her head. Uwabami stood there for a moment longer, before making her way out the door.

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><p>"Director?" Uwabami started, watching as the Rabbit-Man skidded to a stop from where he and Chita were racing once again. The Director bounded towards her.<p>

"Uwabami! Aoi Hana, what's her problem?" He got straight to the point. One of his workers refused to work! He needed to know what he could do, to try and make it better!

"She's a bit sick. She needs a few days of rest to feel better. It's just-" The Director had stopped listening after the word 'sick.' In his mind, having run a zoo and having to watch a few of the smaller animals die from sickness, he knew that was a bad thing. Of course, he didn't know that it was just a common cold with a small fever- nothing much to humans.

"Sick?! She's dying!" Before Uwabami could continue, he had run off towards where Aoi slept.

"-a common cold." She finished, but he was already too far gone to hear. Chita started snickering. "Chita-kun? Why are you laughing?"

"It's just that she'll be fine! Human's don't die from colds!" Uwabami let out a small giggle.

"The Director cares far too much."

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><p>"AOOOOOOI!" Aoi groaned as the Director burst, once again, through her doorway. <em>'At least this time there wasn't a door he could kick down...'<em>

"Director!" Aoi snapped, glaring out from under her blanket.

"AOI!" He leapt across the room and grabbed her shoulders. "You can't die, you hear me! You can't!" He was shaking her now, and it was making her _very _nauseous.

"D-Direc-tor! Stop!" He did and stared down at her as she covered her mouth. "Ugh... I feel like I need to vomit..."

"You will not die Zookeeper!" He shouted in a mildly scolding tone.

"Die?" Aoi wondered, her mind slowly computing what he said. "Director, it's just a cold. A mild fever at the worst! I'm not dying!" He blinked.

"Oh." Aoi felt as though he was blushing, embarrassed, under all that fur. Then again, he was the Director. "Right, I... uh, right sorry." He was flustered! Aoi felt a laugh build up inside her. Her pounding head, however, made her rethink her want to laugh.

"Just... leave me alone for a bit. And, um, maybe get me some water?" The Director nodded.

"Of course! I'll get Uwabami to watch you! Just don't die!" He reached out and patted her head, before escaping through the open door. They both ignored the many snickers that filtered through the zoo. Aoi rolled onto her side once again, a smile on her face. Maybe she should _'get sick' _more often...


End file.
